Bolivia's to consider Snowden asylum

BOLIVIA'S President Evo Morales says his country is willing to consider Edward Snowden's political asylum request.

AAPJuly 2, 201310:38pm

BOLIVIA'S President Evo Morales says his Latin American country is willing to consider US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden's political asylum request.

"If there were a request, of course we would be willing to debate and consider the idea," Morales told Russia's state-run RT television in comments translated by the channel from Spanish.

Bolivia is one of 21 nations to which the anti-secrecy WikiLeaks website said Snowden had applied for asylum.

Earlier President Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela told Russian reporters that his country has not received an application for asylum from Snowden and dodged the question of whether he would take Snowden away with him. But Maduro also defended the former National Security Agency contractor who released sensitive documents on US intelligence-gathering operations.

"He did not kill anyone and did not plant a bomb," Maduro said ahead of his meeting with Putin, the Interfax news agency reported. "What he did was tell a great truth in an effort to prevent wars. He deserves protection under international and humanitarian law."

During his Kremlin meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Maduro spoke about plans to build on the strong ties with Russia formed under his late predecessor, Hugo Chavez. Neither he nor Putin mentioned Snowden in their public statements.

The Kremlin-friendly newspaper Izvestia reported Monday that the two presidents would discuss Snowden, adding to speculation that arrangements would be made for Snowden to travel to Venezuela.

Snowden withdrew his bid for asylum in Russia when he learned the terms Moscow had set out, according to Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov. Putin said on Monday that Russia was ready to shelter Snowden as long as he stopped leaking US secrets.

At the same time, Putin said he had no plans to turn over Snowden to the United States.

Snowden also has applied for asylum in 20 other countries, according to WikiLeaks, but many of those countries say he cannot apply from abroad. Officials in Austria, Finland, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain and Switzerland all said he must make his request on their soil.

WikiLeaks said requests have also been made to Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Iceland, India, Italy, Ireland, Netherlands, Nicaragua, Spain and Venezuela.